The Premier League next season will kick off with Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United debut after BT Sport secured the rights to their season-opener against Swansea City.

The Telegraph has learnt that Sky Sports opted against showing Van Gaal’s first match in charge of United when selecting its live fixtures for the first four months of the campaign, electing instead to showcase all of the top four from last season.

That left the way clear for its bitter rival to open with Van Gaal’s debut in English football at 12.45pm on Saturday Aug 16.

A formal announcement is expected on Monday or Tuesday confirming that on the same weekend Sky will broadcast the first match of Manchester City’s title defence at Newcastle United, Liverpool’s opening fixture of the post-Luis Suárez era against Southampton, Chelsea’s trip to promoted Burnley and the London derby between Arsenal, the FA Cup holders, and Crystal Palace.

In some respects, that selection echoes the tactics employed by Sky last season ahead of BT’s first campaign broadcasting live Premier League football.

Then, Sky exercised its first refusal on fixtures to show the opening matches of all of the top three – United, City and Chelsea – games in which David Moyes and Manuel Pellegrini made their managerial debuts at United and City respectively, and Jose Mourinho made his return with Chelsea.

This time, however, Sky has allowed BT to muscle into that space, amid growing anticipation about Van Gaal’s arrival at Old Trafford thanks to his words and deeds at the World Cup with Holland.

The Swansea match could also feature the United debuts of Ander Herrera, the £29 million midfielder, Luke Shaw, the £27 million full-back, and other big-money signings.

Despite the disastrous reign of Moyes, United remain the biggest draw in English football when it comes to television ratings, something BT must improve if it is to challenge Sky’s dominance of the pay-TV market.

Having been blocked from showing four of United’s first five league games a year ago, it is understood that BT will show two of the first three – and three of the first seven – although Sky is expected to have kept a firm grip on United’s biggest fixtures against Chelsea, City and Arsenal in October and November.

Last season, it froze BT out from head-to-head matches between the previous campaign’s top four prior to December, although it denied that this represented a “strangle-at-birth” policy.

Pending police approval, there will be no repeat this year after BT secured the rights to Arsenal v City on Sept 13 and Liverpool v Chelsea on Nov 8, with Sky showing the rest.

The resurgence of Liverpool – English football’s second biggest television draw – and the demise of United may have added a layer of complexity to the process of selecting matches by Sky and BT.

Sky, which paid a record £2.3 billion for 116 live games two years ago, boasts 20 first picks from the 38 rounds of matches. BT, which paid £758 million for 38 fixtures, has 18.

Sky also gets to choose in which rounds it exercises its first picks, while it has the second and third pick of matches in every round, giving it a huge advantage over its rival.

That BT has opened more strongly than it did last season could be a consequence of one of the most unpredictable campaigns – and title races – in Premier League history.

The matches Sky covets more than any other are the games where the championship is secured and – if a different fixture – where the trophy is lifted. It therefore may have held back more of its first picks until the final third of the season to ensure nothing is left to chance.

Sky’s dominance was brutally exposed at the end of last term when it froze BT out of the climax to the title race, denying its newest and biggest rival the opportunity to show any of the top four in the final month of the campaign.

It could easily repeat the feat this season, although BT will be hoping for another strong showing during the middle third of the campaign, when it must use five of its 18 first picks for midweek matches.

By that stage, both broadcasters could know which of them has secured the lions’ share of the rights to Premier League football between 2016 and 2019, with expectation growing that these will be put out to tender before the end of the year.

With BT having snatched the Champions League from Sky in November by paying £897 million to show all European club football from 2015, the forthcoming auction is gearing up to be the most important in the history of the English game.

Sky’s empire was founded on it being the home of the Premier League and its determination to retain the rights could lead to bidding records being smashed.